SonicANIME2010 here, bringing in the finale to the Little Planet arc. Hope everyone likes this, been hearing some good stuff on the reviews and comments I've been getting. Usual disclaimers apply; I don't own Sonic or Nanoha.
[Earth]
[Uminari City, Japan]
[Residential District, Harlaown Residence]
[Local Time: 1020 hours]
[BGM: "The Red Wings" Final Fantasy IV (Remastered)]
From the makeshift yet effective command center of the modest home in Uminari, three individuals had their attention fixated on the screens above them. The screens would display information recently taken from a live feed set up on the devices. Lindy, Amy (Limietta) and Chrono carefully analyzed all that they could. The recent race with Metal Sonic was most intriguing for the time being, and for good reason.
"Perhaps we've underestimated this doctor" Lindy commented neutrally, "His creation had put on a valiant, yet losing effort."
"It still lost to the blue hedgehog" Chrono wasn't about to openly disagree with his mother, but he still held his own reservations in context of the events that had transpired, "A familiar at that as well."
"Are you still going on about that?" The older woman scolded, though lightly, as she most likely felt that a few facts had still eluded her son's awareness, "You are aware that Sonic-kun was fighting this "Eggman" character prior to becoming a familiar"
"I am, but that's also my point" Chrono explained his side of the argument, "Considering how little magic he used in the race, it could be said that he wouldn't have needed the magic power from his mistress to win, and that's why I believe we shouldn't place much attention on this foe"
"Chrono-kun is jealous that Sonic-kun's getting more action than he is." Amy (Limietta) teasingly chimed in, but not without her own argument, "Besides, Sonic-kun has also recently noted that this "Eggman" character has improved since they last went against one another"
"I am not jealous" The boy enforcer shot back, rather too quickly though to admit the denial that he could be jealous of a familiar. He certainly was not jealous about how much action said familiar was getting as well while he was stuck riding a desk chair.
"Enough!" the admiral interjected, effectively ceasing the petty argument between the two. "While Chrono is correct in regards to the established fact that Eggman may not be much of an adversary now, Amy is also correct in that this man has been able to improve his machines with time and I'd much rather deal with him now before he becomes a problem big enough to warrant "official" Bureau attention."
"Then what are we going to do about the girl?" Chrono inquired in reference to the mysterious mage identifying herself as Alicia, "If she is who she claims she is, then we've just found Precia's biological daughter."
"Her story would appear to check out" Lindy noted, "But until Precia's trial is finished, neither she nor Fate are to step foot on Mid-Childa."
"You know the Bureau will want a report on this in person" The enforcer countered rather quickly, "Our ship can't stay in the orbit of a Non-Administrated world much longer"
"I know, that's why I'm going to take the Arthra back to Mid with her crew. I need to convince the higher ups that our stay on this world needs to be extended." The admiral already had an answer for that, and gave the two teens sharp looks to deter any argument from forming in her next sentence, "And you two are going to remain here to watch over them while I'm gone."
"What are we going to do about Fate-chan and Alicia-chan?" Amy inquired, she too wasn't about to disobey a direct order from her superior, but she was still concerned about the aforementioned duo.
"They can either stay here or with the Takamachi family" A simple, yet effective answer was given by the woman, she wasn't above a small teasing jab at her subordinates either, "I'm certain I can trust you two not to make too much of a mess of the place while I'm absent, right?"
"Yes ma'am!" Amy and Chrono agreed wholeheartedly; the former of the two couldn't help but notice the knowing expression on her superior's face, and she was slightly unnerved when the woman appeared to give her a small wink.
'Oh crap…' the brunette teen gulped a little, 'What was that for?!'
[OP: "Innocent Starter" Nana Mizuki]
Sonic the Hedgehog: Lyrical Familiar
Chapter 21
Little Planet's Final Fever
[Little Planet: Metallic Madness]
[BGM: "Metallic Madness" Sonic CD (JPN/EU)]
It didn't take long into the decent of Eggman's base on Little Planet for the group to already start second guessing their decision to allow Amy Rose to help them out. The pink girl had tried to take every opportunity she could get to stick close to the object of her affection, Sonic. Her clinginess had annoyed Arf within seconds while Nanoha was subjected to the evil eye glare almost every minute. The only one who found some amusement in all of this was Alicia, and that was because she found Fate's protective nature of the white-clad mage from earth to be quite cute.
Despite the nuisance that Amy's presence had caused, they had kept her around because of the productive results she had presented them. The pink hedgehog was able to guide them through the first part of Doctor Eggman's base, and the abstract differences in the environment between the zones prior and the evil base zone was plainly obvious for all to see.
Unlike the other areas, where one could still see some portion of the environment in the background at some point; Metallic Madness was a dimension ruled by technology with a hue of techno-green. The metallic flooring had built-in turbines and circular saws, leaving little doubt that Eggman had intended to pull out all the tricks he had at his disposal to stop them.
Among the traps in Eggman's base included an odd contraption that was best described as a pole on wheels. This pole contraption had spinning blades on the top and just above the wheels. The blades would alternate between the ground and air level. Despite the headache generated in keeping track of the blades, the group was still able to find creative means of avoiding it. The mages and familiars were able to fly in between the blades while Amy used her hammer to boost her jump height enough to scale over the contraption. While it was effective, the others noted, to Amy's annoyance, that her approach would've had her hurt if she was in a more constricted area.
"Sheesh!" Arf grumbled in annoyance, "Someone's been busy."
"And smart" Alicia added, "I haven't seen any of the time travel signs in here yet."
"At least there aren't that many robots here yet" Sonic noted in optimism, "Eggman figured that we'd have enough trouble with his deathtraps."
Despite the grumblings about Eggman's design and how often the traps had threatened the safety of the others, the team was still able to make their way to one of the Past signs. The bigger challenge, however, was trying to build up enough speed when passing through the gate in order to initiate the big jump. Their nerves built more when there was a pause of action after they passed, they were fearful that the speed they had wasn't enough. That case was proven to be false rather quickly as their environment warped around them and the familiar feeling passed over before the warp.
[Metallic Madness –Past]
[BGM: "Metallic Madness (Past)" Sonic CD]
The Past of the zone was much like the present except the factory and base of Eggman's operations was still under construction. Despite the phase of construction, all of the machines and computers were intact and functional, bearing a lavender hue to contrast the green from the Present. Building girders and cranes were visible about the walls, ceiling and floors. As the group arrived, they took a moment to ensure they were all present and accounted for. Much to the dismay of the others, Amy Rose had managed to keep up with them through the warp.
"This place is full of cranes and machinery" Alicia said with a not-so-pleased frown on her face, "He ripped up the whole area!"
"Eggman doesn't really care about that" Sonic shrugged, "He only focuses on getting what he wants."
"He starts the construction of the base here so that way it would be present in the present and future zones" Fate noted the thought-up logic behind the placement, "He really cares for this base"
A loud alarm interrupted the musings of the group. Evidently, the security system in the construction site of the base was not only active, but it picked up the presence of the intruders. Sonic had to quickly take back what he said about the lack of robots, because the alarm had drawn their attention and soon the team was surrounded by the bug-themed machinations of the doctor.
The robots here not only were themed like insects, but also modified with weapons. The beetle robots had circular saws attached to their front; the wasps had flailing maces dangling from behind. Sonic recognized the design of the armored, rolling bugs from his previous adventure and had to groan a bit.
"Take back what I said about the lack of robots" the blue hedgehog said quickly before the others, sans Amy Rose, could call him out on it, "Here they come!"
Amy Rose was quickly made aware of the differences of power between herself and the girls whom her object of love interest had befriended. Sure, she could take care of herself and hold her own against 3 robots at once, but seeing the Nanoha (whom she still disliked), Fate and Alicia each take out 6 in one blast had given her a feeling similar to inferiority. Her respect and admiration for Sonic grew in seeing him take out 6 on his wave, but at the same time, Arf was able to do the same and still give her the nervous, intimidated feeling.
'I should've stayed home today.' The pink hedgehog grumbled internally.
The mass numbers of robots had made it interesting, but still the group was easily able to make their way to the robot-generating machine and Metal Sonic Projector. Both objective items were demolished rapidly as well. While the actions were effective, Eggman still had plenty of robots about as they were in the metaphorical hornet's nest.
The biggest challenge from there was getting to the Future so they could end Eggman's plot once and for all. Though the number of robots had greatly decreased due to the robot machine's destruction, they still had to deal with the death traps and spinning blade poles. Not to mention they just had to take the trickiest route through the base.
There was even a part through the course when the corridors threatened to cut them off as they were far too big to even squeeze through. Amy Rose pointed out that she noticed this on her way in despite the Doctor's robots taking her through a different route. She implied that the good old Doctor had installed a shrink ray machine of sorts and it was designed to help any of his robots that happened to take a wrong turn get back to the base. The idea was pondered for a moment.
"So a conveniently placed shrink ray is our only way to get through the corridor now." Sonic was immediately skeptical and mistrusting of the idea, "I don't buy it. Egghead's already laced this route with enough traps to burn at least one extra life if we weren't careful."
"Well, if it's the only way…" Fate didn't seem to like the idea any more than anyone else did, but she figured she'd have to live with it so long as there was a way to return back to normal size.
"Or we could just blast our way through. If the base gets destroyed, so what, that's what we're trying to do anyway" the blue hedgehog sent a knowing glance and a smirk at his master and her device, "And I think a certain device knows what I'm talking about…"
"Divine Buster!" Sure enough, Raising Heart was in sync with the idea.
"Eeeeh?!" Amy Rose was, needless to say, quite shocked and surprised to find that the gem in the white-clad girl's staff could speak, "It TALKED?!"
"Yes, it can talk, we've established this in the first chapter" Sonic deadpanned, "Now can we blast the wall and move on already?"
Nanoha was already a step ahead of her familiar when the question was asked, as she had already charged up the energy required for the spell in the familiar pink sphere at the tip of Raising Heart. Amy could only stand by helpless and watch as the brown-haired human girl literally tore a huge hole through the walls of the corridor. The pink hedgehog wasn't sure what to be more concerned for: the fact that a human who didn't look much older than she was had this power in her, or the fact that no one else, even her blue crush, seemed fazed by the action.
With that obstacle out of the way, the group was able to find and utilize the Future sign. For all of the grumbling that Amy made, she still was able to use her memory to guide them to such. From there, it was the all too familiar warping feeling from time travel that arguably could've grown on the group, if only the jump arguably wouldn't have been their last.
[Eyecatch: The Nanoha star logo and Sonic Team logo overlap one another briefly a few times before flying over to the right side and the Sonic Team logo comfortably fitting inside the star. The background would change between a sky-blue and a cherry blossom pink as the story subtitle, written in the correct language, appeared]
[Eyecatch: chibi versions of Sonic and Nanoha were seen bathing together in an onsen while chibi versions of Fate, Arf and Alicia were peeking on them with their heads over the wall. The method worked, at least until the wall broke and the trio were sent right into the water. There was an awkward pause for about a few seconds while everyone featured were blushing cute shades of red, but they laughed it off in the end. Around the time of the laughter the story logo appeared on the right side]
[Metallic Madness: Good Future]
[BGM: "Metallic Madness (Good Future)" Sonic CD (JPN/EU)]
Upon arriving in the future of the zone, the team was graced by arguably the most beautiful locations they've ever seen in a lifetime. The land of the zone had been converted into what appeared to be a mix between a huge botanical garden and a futuristic shopping mall. Futuristic structures of a utopian design could be seen across the horizon. Animals could be seen dancing and prancing freely amidst the indoor corridors.
"Alright, I'll admit it" Sonic spoke in his casual tone, yet still holding respect and some admiration for the sight, "This is one of the prettiest sights I've ever seen."
"Even Mid-Childa would be hard pressed to top this" Alicia was just about as surprised as everyone else, she didn't go past the Speedway often enough to check out the particular zone, "Beautiful and peaceful."
"Still dangerous…" Fate noted sadly as she gestured to the remaining deathtraps, which had taken a more peaceful color due to the time distortion, "Traps everywhere"
"They don't look so threatening now though with the bright colors" Nanoha noted optimistically, "That should give us confidence"
Despite the threat of the deathtraps, the team continued to progress. The only regret that could've been of note was that they couldn't slow down and enjoy the peaceful background more. The metallic terrain seemed to just fly by with the swiftness in everyone's step. The only thing about the traps that made some interest was one of the self-destructing bomb robots that came close to hitting an aerial Nanoha in the splash, but Fate covered her with a Defenser.
It didn't take much longer for them to encounter the mad scientist once more. To everyone's brief surprise, Eggman's mobile unit was not fitted with anything special and just appeared as its usual self. Though that didn't really mean much as the doctor could easily arm his mech to the teeth with a press of a button; it didn't help that Eggman had an air of calmness about him.
"We meet again" The doctor, very calmly, addressed the interlopers, "I hope you've enjoyed your pleasure cruise."
"Awe, no childish tantrums?" Sonic chided, noting the calm demeanor and hoping to break it, "The calm bit doesn't suit you at all, Baldy McNosehair"
"You'll learn to silence your taunts" Eggman countered and started to press a few buttons, causing some activity from his Egg-Mobile, "And if you don't do it yourself, I'll shut you all up… permanently."
"With what?" the blue hedgehog decided to play the ignorant one and ask, "Your usual mech? That thing wouldn't stand a chance against us"
The doctor had a smug grin on his face as he pressed a few buttons on the console of his Egg-mobile. His mobile entered a spherical machine that had an odd design of sorts. The overall mech was spherical and appeared to be quite armored. 4 rectangular blades protruded from the sides at 90 degree angles to one another, sorta like a plus sign or an x-shape. The blades rotated clockwise, effectively making the machine a large saw.
"How do you like this?" Eggman cockily grinned as his machine stuck to the ceiling and moved back and forth, "My final trump card. The Final Fever"
[VS: Final Fever]
[BGM: "Final Fever" Sonic CD (JPN/EU)]
The machine kept to the pattern of moving back-and-forth along the ceiling of the room. Because of that, the aerial Nanoha, Fate and Alicia had to stick to the ground or risk testing how sharp those blades were. The aerial mages made an attempt to fire off some magic rounds on the way down, but they held varying degrees of failure. The Photon Lancers from Fate and Alicia were negated by the strong armor while Nanoha's Divine Shooter rounds were deflected by the blades. Luckily the deflected shots were evaded by the fighters on the ground.
"Our magic shots are no good" Nanoha observed nervously, "Very thick armor on that machine; any normal shots are rendered useless"
"And we can't get any closer to him either" Sonic added and drew a guess from how the blades handled the magic, "I get the feeling even our best defensive shields won't be able to protect us from the blades."
"He probably won't give us any time to prepare any bombardment spells" Fate noted the rapid back-and-forth movement in the Doctor's latest contraption, "We'll have to use melee or our rapid fire spells"
"Then we'll stick to the ground" Alicia declared, "He can't hit us when we're down here."
"I wouldn't be so sure" Eggman countered vilely as he pressed a few more buttons on his console, "Let's see how well you can move"
Upon the command, the mech slowly descended to the ground level, separating the group of 6 into 3 with Sonic, Nanoha and Arf on one side and Alicia, Fate and Amy Rose on the other. The doctor's tactic in the approach appeared to have the intent of crushing them with the blunt side of the blades. The biggest flaw in the approach was that the armor had severely reduced the speed of the machine, making the attack easy to avoid. When he took his leap upward, Sonic had thought that he had spotted something in the joints of the blades, but he had to return to the ground level before he could try anything.
Eggman was quick to change tactics as he centered his machine on the ceiling. The blades detached from the mech and fell down on their sides. While they weren't difficult to avoid, the tactic was pretty clever on the doctor's part as the blades would've most likely interfered with one another if they came down on the broad side.
Undeterred by the evasive maneuvers the interlopers were able to take in avoiding his attacks, the doctor brought all four blades back to him and descended a few feet until he was in the middle of the area. With a smug grin and a few more buttons pressed, the doctor willed the blades to extend outward and press against the walls of the area. While it limited the field of movement and separated the group into the previous 2 trios, the tactic confirmed to Sonic something he had thought he seen before: a weak point in the machine.
Grinning himself, Sonic drew his twin kodachi swords and slashed at the exposed joint of the blade closest to him, which was separating the group. Sure enough, the strike severed the blade from the joint and not only rendered it useless, but also expose the weak point in the armor for a quick follow-up Divine Shooter shot from Nanoha, whom had caught on to what her familiar had seen quickly.
"Gah! Pull up! Pull up!" Eggman quickly pulled his machine up to the ceiling again and spun the blades in a defensive pattern once more before he could take any further damage. Unfortunately the move wasn't without consequence as a vital weak point had already been exposed.
"Looks like those blades are the weak points in the machine" Sonic noted, "If we're lucky, we'll have a brief window when he tries to crush us with them. Otherwise we'll have to wait for him to extend the blades"
"Don't get so confident just yet" The scientist sneered as he continued to work his contraption, "One hit isn't going to matter much when I take you out"
The doctor rapidly descended his tri-bladed mech down to the ground, only instead of going after the trio with Sonic; he went the other way and rushed for Fate, Alicia and Amy, hoping to crush them. Unfortunately his method not only failed, but the absence of the fourth blade exposed a weak point on top of the machine and Fate was just lucky enough with Bardiche to land a solid slice to an exposed joint with the device in Scythe Form, reducing his blade number down to 2.
"You little…" whatever Eggman had meant to say was cut off as he had to quickly pull up to the ceiling and resume the back and forth movement. Even though he had only half the amount of blades to use at his disposal, the doctor compensated with adding more power to the ones left, making them spin even faster.
It wasn't long before Eggman went on the offensive again. He once again centered the mech in the middle and flung the blades at the group. With only two blades left, he had the advantage of sending them at the team on the wide side. Not that it was of much effect, as they were easily able to jump to avoid them.
The doctor was quick to call the blades back to him and engage in another attack. With more room to move he went to the right and extended the blades to hopefully catch Sonic, Nanoha and Arf off guard. His attack not only failed poorly, but also left his other side exposed to a few slices from Alicia's paper fan. The blade count was reduced to one and the attack was followed up by a Photon Lancer from Arf at the side that the shorter blonde had just cut.
"Systems Critical!" Very quickly, the doctor's calm demeanor had been replaced by nerves and fear. Within a matter of minutes, Eggman had to witness a downfall at the hands of his enemies and his best attempts to prevent it were thwarted at almost every angle.
Eggman was not ready to throw in the towel just yet though and he had one final trick up his sleeve to use. Directing all remaining power to the one blade, he made his mech drop down with the lone blade acting as a spring. He was clearly hoping to stomp the interlopers flat. It was all or nothing at this point and Eggman had no choice but to risk it.
Unfortunately, the recurring theme of failure was evident and enforced as Amy had taken the opportunity to score a powerful slam on the remaining blade's joint with her hammer. A follow-up attack from Nanoha had not only disarmed the machine, but also created a chain reaction that caused the machine and the base linked to it to slowly destruct itself and crumble.
[Final Boss Neutralized]
[No BGM]
"This whole place is going down!" Sonic shouted to the others, "We better skedaddle before we go down with it!"
"What about the last Time Stone?" Arf asked, inquiring about the crimson red gem that had jettisoned in the midst of the chain reaction. The wolf familiar currently had it in her sight and wasn't sure what to do with it
"Grab it and go" Alicia quickly shouted the order, "But hurry, we don't have much time before this base comes down on us."
With a rather dumb nod, Arf complied and made all haste to follow her blue hedgehog counterpart in fleeing from the crumbling base of the scientist. Fate and Alicia had quickly followed suit while Nanoha had to take a brief delay to grab the pink hedgehog and secure her in a bridal carry. While Amy Rose had mentally lamented her regret that she couldn't have been carried by her blue hero, her self-preservation due to the fact that the white-clad human could fly and carry her had quickly doused the regret.
[Earth]
[South Island: Never Lake]
[Local Time: 1105 hours]
[BGM: "Believe in yourself (Ending Theme)" Sonic CD (JPN/EU)]
Very quickly, five blurs had rushed down to the surface of the lake. 2 were yellow, one was pink, another was orange and the last one was blue. The team of mages had successfully vacated the base just as it went down. The chain anchoring the planet to the lake had broken apart and the ugly shape of Eggman's face in the mountain side had crumbled apart as well.
It all happened rather quickly and the visual feed that Lindy and the others in the base at Uminari were given displayed a huge explosion from the mountain where Eggman's face used to be. The unconfirmed presence of their deployed mages drew some concern to Admiral Lindy Harlaown's face.
"Nanoha! Fate!" The woman almost yelled through the communication feed as she tried to hail the two mages or at least their devices, "We're seeing a huge explosion on our side, are you guys alright?"
"Hai!" Nanoha, with little delay, replied back to the admiral to assure her the confirmation of survival, "We're all here; we managed to get out before the whole place went down"
"That's a relief" the woman could briefly be heard sighing in relief, "That was close, but a job well done"
Communication was halted briefly as more activity brewed from where Eggman's base used to be on Little Planet. A small dot, followed by a stream of smoke had jettisoned from the small planet. It didn't take a genius to determine that Eggman had been able to use the destruction of his base to escape.
"Ack! Not quite" Sonic noted with a groan, "Eggman's escaping"
"Leave him; we don't have the resources to deal with him right now." Lindy ordered rather quickly, "For the moment, make sure that Little Planet is safe and secure."
Those who could hear her nodded in reply. The lone exception, Amy Rose, was slightly confused to see and hear the others talk to a mysterious woman from some sort of a floating screen. Neither she, nor anyone else could dwell on the thought as more activity was visible from Little Planet, this time the reaction chained to the Time Stones in their grasp.
"Whoa!" Sonic was the first to point out anything as he and the others who had a stone in their possession felt them almost get violently ripped from their hold, "The Time Stones!"
All seven Time Stones emitted their mysterious, yet powerful glow as they started to form streams of their respective color of light and head right back to Little Planet. The sight was truly a marvelous one to behold as the planet started to give off excess amounts of energy, no doubt from the destruction of Eggman's machines, which were draining its power.
"Pretty..." Alicia admitted in some admiration.
Little Planet wasn't through with amazing everyone just yet. Light-blue particles of light started to form and play around the planet as if they were alive. Shapes started to form from the light particles; the shapes had started to resemble faces. In particular, Sonic, Fate, Nanoha, Alicia and Arf were depicted, almost as if the planet knew who had saved it.
"Those look just like us!" Nanoha noted in surprise and wonder.
"Guess it wants to thank us" Sonic had tried to give some reason behind it, not that he had any clue about it either because he didn't.
The only regret Amy Rose had was that her depiction wasn't shown in the light show. Not that, she, or anyone else could ponder that as Little Planet gave off another mysterious glow and slowly rise upward into the sky. The planet would appear to continue its ascent for a brief moment before it disappeared in a flashy display.
There was a brief moment of silence amongst the mages, familiars and pink hedgehog tagalong. No one was capable of any words or thoughts as they were all amazed by the beautiful scene that had just taken place. The silence wasn't long to last and someone had to break it at some point.
"It's gone…" Sonic was the first to break the silence, "That's certainly new."
"Guess it needed to recharge" Nanoha had a guess, but she didn't have much confidence behind it. Another thing dawned upon her as well as the white-clad girl realized something she had to ask, "Wait, what about Alicia-chan?"
The mention of the shorter blonde had everyone turn to face the area where the aforementioned girl had landed. Sure enough, the girl was still there; alive, present and accounted for. The shorter blonde had the sense of humor to smile, wave and act as cutely as possible to remind everyone that she was there.
"As if someone as cute as me can be held back by that world" the short blonde said with a grin, "Besides, I'm not going to let anything get in my way of spending time with my new adorable little sister"
"Alicia…" Fate said with a brief phase of stars in her eyes, perhaps starting to admire the girl that had accepted her as a sibling, uncaring for the cloning part.
"I hate to interrupt these types of cute moments, but we're still on the clock" The woman noted, "I want everyone to come over here and report in"
"Everyone?" Alicia couldn't help but ask for the clarification
"Everyone, including you" Lindy gave a flat look to the short blonde for a brief moment before giving an even more serious glance at the pink hedgehog, "And you"
"Huh?!" Amy Rose was completely confused. She had opened her mouth to speak something in retort, but the glare kept her mouth shut, "R-right"
"Good!" Lindy said with a grin, "I'll await your return at the base in Uminari"
The others could only nod and confirm the reception of the orders before the woman cut off the communication feed there. It seemed that all was settled and the group could return to Japan to debrief. If only it were that easy.
Before anyone could so much as take a step forward, they found all ground and air paths cut off. A fair number of animals local to South Island had surrounded them and blocked any means of escape. Birds, squirrels, turtles and bunnies were only a fair selection of the animals that had barred the escape paths. The ones surrounded were completely confused, but there was one thing they were sure of. None of the animals looked happy, or even friendly to see them.
"Great…" Sonic groaned in annoyance, "Just great."
[To Be Continued!]
[Ending theme: "Little Wish ~Lyrical Step" Yukari Tamura]
[End of Chapter 21]
Author's Note: Sorry for the delay... had to deal with Finals... but I now have a few weeks off for the holidays... Hopefully I can get something going while I'm dealing with said holiday break. Next up! Some aftermaths and probably an intermission chapter before I go on to the next arc... A's…. read, review, the works. Loving some feedback please.